


The Right Choice

by Sweety_Mutant



Series: What if? The Great Escape [2]
Category: The Great Escape (1963)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Movie Spoilers, Other, what if...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-27
Updated: 2014-04-27
Packaged: 2018-01-21 00:40:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1531703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweety_Mutant/pseuds/Sweety_Mutant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Hilts had escaped somehow?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Right Choice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nkrockz23](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nkrockz23/gifts).



> * Disclaimer: The movie is not mine (obviously ^^). I only borrow the characters from the MGM and the real life persons and events belong to themselves.  
> *This morning, I got a commission from nkrockz23 over on FF.net, who asked me: What if Hilts had escaped somehow? I sincerely hope you’ll all like the fic, and don’t forget to review and give me commissions.   
> *contain spoilers  
> * Please forgive me for any mistakes I’m not a native English speaker.  
> 

For hours, Hilts has been finding, mapping, remembering all the information needed by the X organization while escaping the search patrols. He silently entered his last goal, the Żagań Station. As he was stealing timetables and maps, a merchandise train entered the station. Hidden, he watched soldiers search the train, a little voice whispering in his head that he could just jump into one of the cars, just hide amongst the stock… just let the rails run beneath him … just go away.  
He waited, a few minutes, his mind wavering between his responsibility towards the X organization and his freedom, his sweet, beloved, freedom… He looked up from his hiding place and saw Ives’ face looking at him, smiling, as if to convince him to make a choice… He died reaching for freedom… but believed in this crazy plan until the very end…  
The whistle of the train suddenly pulled him back into reality, and Hilts looked left, right, nobody… and jumped into the last car.  
The journey through Poland and Germany war fearsome but uneventful, adrenaline pumping into his system to keep him awake and focused… When he reached France, he was introduced to Résistance fighters who smuggled him to Spain. As soon as he put a foot on the Spanish ship that was to take him to England, he knew that everything was over. He was free. At last. And yet he felt somehow… guilty. A month has passed since he jumped on that train in Żagań, and for the first time since then, he wondered if he had made the right choice.  
***  
At the same moment, Stalag Luft III, hut 110…  
Roger was pacing relentlessly in the room, Mac and Ramsey waiting for him to calm down.  
“We shouldn’t have trusted him… I should have known he…”  
“We’re not sure he escaped. Anything could have happened to him…” said Mac, but he went totally unnoticed by his friend, who went on:  
“And now we’ve lost precious time! These information are an absolute necessity, we have to find another way to acquire them…” He sat down, head in his hands, and a thoughtful silence filled the room.  
After a few minutes, Mac spoke softly:  
“I may have found a solution… “  
“Go on.”  
“We could send somebody else. Somebody we can trust… meanwhile, I will get Goff to tell me anything he might know about Hilts’ fate.”  
“I must admit it’s not a bad idea… but if I may say, who would you send?” asked Ramsey.  
It was Roger who answered this time:  
“Ashley-Pitt. He speaks German, has my entire trust, and he is not a well-known face like some of us.”  
Ramsey acquiesced: “I suppose you’ll be planning a meeting soon?”  
“As soon as possible. Mac, find Eric and send him to me. Then pass the word to all members of the organization, there will be a meeting tonight. I hope you’ll have information about Hilts to tell me tonight.”  
“Right Roger.”  
As Mac and Roger leaved the room, Ramsey smiled to himself. He refilled his cup of tea, awaiting the meeting while looking through the window at the busy hive that was the camp.  
Later that night, in the camp library, the members of the X organization were introduced to the new plan, and it was scheduled for a very proud and nervous Eric to go out the next day.  
When Roger asked if anybody had questions or comments, Cavendish said:  
“I’ve just thought of something… If we gave Ashley-Pitt a knotted rope, he could help me do a far more accurate survey. This way, we’d be surer about the progression of the tunnel…”  
“That’s quite a good idea, answered Roger, but maybe you should have thought about that before. Anyway, Eric, you think you can do this?”  
“Yes, I will do it.” answered the young man.  
***  
Two days after Eric went under the wire, he was recaptured and brought back to the cooler as scheduled. Two weeks of solitary confinement later, he was in the SBO room with a cup of hot tea, giving the information and maps. When he finished, Roger said:  
“Very well. I think we have everything we could hope for. Mac will be back soon with Cavendish, you still have the results you measured?”  
“Yes of course.”  
A few minutes later, the surveyor looked up from the sheet of paper where he kept his precious surveys, and said:  
“God.. You won’t believe me.”  
“Pray tell us then.” Said Roger  
“If I add the measure Eric and I took that night, and compare them with my original survey, we got this difference.” He pointed a result on the paper.  
“Which means?”  
“It means that we’d stuck to the first measures, the tunnel would have ended twenty feet short of the woods.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed the story :D. At first, I was not sure where I should end the fic, but after auto-beta-reading, I thought that it sounded better like this and I decided to keep the end somewhat open. This way, if I want to / am asked to, I can write a sequel with different endings.


End file.
